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Glenn Ellis gives a personal account of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and remembers his four friends: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair.

Sixteen-year-old Brandon Garcia talks about his difficult journey from Guatemala to the United States and some of the challenges he’s faced since immigrating to the States.

After her father's death, Esperanza and her mother are left with few options and forced to flee to America. The immigration officers are only the first obstacle they must face. Beyond them, the Great Depression and an uncertain future awaits.

Margaret Batchelder writes to President Theodore Roosevelt to tell him how women inspectors welcome immigrants—with smiles and encouragement. Although not allowed to question the immigrants, the women make a difference in the immigrants' first experiences on shore.

Hussein, the narrator of My Name Was Hussein, lives in Bulgaria. His Muslim family takes great pride in their religion and traditions. But soldiers soon arrive in their village and force all of the Muslims to adopt Christian names, thereby inhibiting their freedom and identities.

Because Najeeb Abreely remembers what it was like to emigrate to America, he can soothe the fears of frightened immigrants he must now inspect and question.

In this introduction, Alice Walker touches on ideas of activism, the strength of the individual, enlightenment, fear of being inferior and the conviction needed to embrace one's life.

Rosie's mother and father did not marry out of love, and her mother writes haiku as an escape. After entering a contest, a man comes to deliver her prize—a framed picture. Angered by this intrusion, Rosie's father destroys the picture. In her anguish, Rosie's mother explains her marriage to her daughter.

Although her husband died in the September 11 attack, Arissa is targeted for being Muslim. In this excerpt, she is held up by a group of men who berate her and threaten to kill her until they realize she is pregnant.

The discovery of a memoir by one of President Madison's slaves sheds light on the role slavery played in the White House.